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“There is growing recognition within parts of the Vietnam government that the game is over and they can no longer hide behind Burma,” says a leading rights activist. “Whether that realization is in turn leading to a willingness to make reforms is hard to say.”
The current crackdown on dissent is harsh, even by Vietnam’s standards, writes Steve Finch, a Bangkok-based analyst:
Meanwhile, intellectuals, church leaders and current and former army and party officials have put their signatures on an online petition calling for revisions to the constitution to separate executive, legislative and judicial powers and allow multi-party elections. Support for this direct challenge to the status quo has grown steadily.
According to the charter amendments as they stood ahead of a three-month public consultation ending on March 31st, Vietnam’s new constitution is expected to include greater mention of terms like democracy and human rights, as well as adding presidential powers. The new charter may also enshrine the right to establish labor associations and to strike, according to state media reports.
Whether the newly written constitution will provide a platform for tangible political reforms remains unclear, however. Opinions are mixed.
Vietnam’s Communist authorities are “systematically suppressing freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly, and persecuting those who question government policies, expose official corruption, or call for democratic alternatives to one-party rule,” according to Human Rights Watch’s World Report 2013:
Another recent detainee, Le Quoc Quan, was previously arrested in 2007 for three months on his return from a five-month Reagan-Fascell fellowship at the National Endowment for Democracy, the Washington-based democracy assistance group.
Vietnam is being left behind in the region when it comes to political and civil liberties, say rights groups:
“Burma has definitely overtaken Vietnam when it comes to political rights,” says Sarah Cook, a senior East Asia research analyst for Freedom House.
Since the introduction of a new parliament in early 2011, Burma has passed reforms including the right to protest, strike, form work unions and publish material free from pre-publication censorship, says Phil Robertson, deputy director of Asia at Human Rights Watch (HRW). Still no such liberties exist in Vietnam, however, with HRW noting in its annual report released last week that rights there took “another step backwards” last year.
“There is growing recognition within parts of the Vietnam government that the game is over and they can no longer hide behind Burma,” says Robertson. “Whether that realization is in turn leading to a willingness to make reforms is hard to say – but what is quite certain is that any improvement in rights that arises in the constitutional reform process will be sold hard by Vietnam as an indication that they are reforming.”
As Finch notes, writing in The Diplomat: Vietnam’s new constitution is expected to include greater mention of terms like democracy and human rights, as well as adding presidential powers. The new charter may also enshrine the right to establish labor associations and to strike, according to state media reports.
Whether the newly written constitution will provide a platform for tangible political reforms remains unclear, however. Opinions are mixed.
Le Quang Binh, director of the Hanoi-based Institute for Studies of Society, Economy and Environment which supports minority rights and has held recent consultations with constitution-drafting officials, says that unprecedented, positive signs do exist.
